Kermit Davis gets up each day, gets some exercise in, takes a shower and puts on pants — with a button at the waist.
During the first few weeks of the shutdown in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, that wasn’t the case.
“I wasn’t doing that at first, but I figured if I stayed in those stretch pants for two months, I couldn’t fit in nothing when I came back,” Davis said during a light moment in a Zoom call with reporters Wednesday.
Davis and the Ole Miss staff are in the midst of a bit of a roster rebuild, one that is fast becoming commonplace in college basketball. The Rebels signed four-star guard Matthew Murrell in the early signing period and have landed transfers Dimencio Vaughn and Robert Allen, along with high school guard Marcus Niblack, in the late period. The expectation, both at Ole Miss and throughout college athletics, is a one-time, no-penalty transfer rule is going to pass this summer, creating even more roster volatility.
Vaughn is a grad transfer from Rider who is immediately eligible. Allen, who played two seasons at Samford, needs the NCAA to pass the proposed legislation to play at Ole Miss in the upcoming season.
“We are working through some different things right now,” Davis said. “I know guys start counting numbers and I get it, but the new norm in college basketball is going to be much different. Some of those things are going to start. …We’re always going to have a flexible roster and you’re going to see that in college basketball and college athletics.”
In other words, the Rebels likely aren’t done. Niblack still has academic work to do to be eligible, but even if he doesn’t qualify, Ole Miss is one over the scholarship limit. With the expectation that the Rebels will likely add at least one more player to the roster, that means more attrition is expected in the coming weeks and months.
“I don’t know if we’re ever done,” Davis said.
As for the Rebels’ known additions, Davis has high hopes for both. Vaughn, Davis said, “was just a guy who’s done it his entire career. He’s a big, talented, physical wing who shoots for a great percentage from 3. You watch him and he can really pass it. Kind of our theme, obviously, is we are trying to get guys with great motors who are self-starters and have toughness.”
Allen was third in the Southern Conference in blocked shots, a category that hampered Ole Miss throughout the disappointing 2019-20 season.
“Everybody you talk to about Robert talks about how hard he plays, what a great motor he has and every day in practice, he comes to play,” Davis said.
The big topic Wednesday, and every day during this pandemic, is the future. When will players report back to campus? When will games be played?
“They don’t know yet,” Davis said. “They just don’t know. The health experts are going to have to make that decision. It’s not going to be us. …I can’t see them bringing college football or college basketball back unless the whole campus comes back. Because we are student-athletes. That may be something they do; it’s just opinion. But I can tell you this, from talking to the people I’ve talked to, and it’s all speculation, but they’re going to play college football. I really believe it. Now when it starts, I don’t know, and how it affects college basketball, that really hasn’t come up yet.”
If a spring football season is necessary, Davis said, “We can figure things out,” adding he could see a scenario where football is played on Saturday and hoops on Sunday.
Until then, whenever then is, Davis and his staff are trying to maintain as much normalcy as possible for the Rebels’ roster, which is scattered all over the country. The team has a Zoom meeting once per week. Academic advisors talk to the players every day. Strength coaches have shipped them resistance bands and jump ropes.
“This is a great time to see exactly where players end up,” Davis said. “College basketball is going to get back to normal. It will. Where are you going to find yourself when it gets back? Are you going to use the virus as an excuse. There are some cats out there who are working. You’re going to see some college basketball players and NBA players separate themselves this year. It’s going to be interesting to me when our guys come back. It’s going to be right there.
“Parks and recs have closed down outdoor courts. There’s going to be some guys who don’t have access to basketball things. We’ve talked to some recruits who have found a gym. Guys are going to have to be creative just from a physical aspect.”
We — as a collective of sports journalists and fans — have had quite the debate recently about when college sports will return.
Here’s the thing: Until the decision is made that it’s safe for students to return to campuses this fall, the conversation is just speculation and nothing else.
The Wall Street Journal poured some cold water on things Friday, speculating about a second wave of the coronavirus.
“There has always been a second wave in the epidemics that have interrupted American life over the last century, from influenza to AIDS, and top infectious disease experts have been warning for weeks that history will likely repeat itself in the coronavirus pandemic,” the Journal’s Louise Radnofsky and Ben Cohen wrote. “The return of this new coronavirus is the darkest shadow hanging over the future of sports, concerts and every kind of mass gathering that was commonplace before. If there is no second wave, it would break a streak of centuries.”
President Donald Trump said Thursday, “We have to get our sports back,” adding he envisions games without fans soon and full stadiums this fall.
“The great fear is that this will recur again this fall,” Gary Simon, chief of infectious diseases at George Washington University, told the Wall Street Journal.
“I think the risk of a second wave is a huge risk, and you’re playing with fire holding a football game with people in the stands,” said Carl Bergstrom, a biology professor at the University of Washington, added.
There’s a debate among journalists regarding the optics of playing college football games without fans. On Thursday, I talked to parents of two college football players — one at Ole Miss and one at a Group of Five program — who said they would have a very difficult time signing off on their sons playing in games deemed unsafe for spectators.
“If it’s not safe for me to be there then it’s not safe for him to be out there playing just so some fans can get their fix on TV,” the parent said. “I’d have a really hard time with that.”
Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin seems to agree. In an interview with WNML-FM in Knoxville, Tennessee, Kiffin was asked about the idea of playing games closed to the public.
“I think that’s a waste of time in my opinion, that conversation,” Kiffin said. “I said on (Paul) Finebaum yesterday, or the day before, whenever it was, that’s just not going to happen. If it’s not safe for people to be around people, you’re not going to play football. You can’t have 120 kids on one sideline around each other. Probably 250 people when it comes to all the staff and student managers. It’s not going to happen. You can’t have that many people around each other. They’re going to go separate places and see people throughout, at night or on weekends or whatever. I know people talk about that, but I think that’s a waste of time. I don’t know how that would ever happen.”
